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13) Between NHL/NBA, there are 12 teams left playing; three of the 12 are in Los Angeles, playing home games at Staples Center. Arena workers are going to go nuts racking up overtime later this week, with two events on both Saturday/Sunday. Two basketball games Saturday, the Kings play on Sunday afternoon, then the Clippers Sunday night. Busy place.

12) Home teams are now 87-22 in NBA Game 7's.

11) This was just the Clippers' 3rd-ever winning season, and only second playoff series win since 1985. Good for them.

10) Quin Snyder is an assistant coach for the Lakers; he was head coach at Missouri from 1999-2006, where he coached a player named Josh Kroenke, who is now..........President and Governor of the Nuggets. Not that long ago he was in college; now he's President of an NBA team.

Kroenke's dad is Stan Kroenke, who owns the Nuggets/Avalanche and the St Louis Rams, which helps explains Josh's rapid rise to the top. This is an excellent organization though, one with a bright future.

9) If you want to bet the Super Bowl 8-9 months early, the NFC has been posted as a 3-point favorite over the AFC.

8) 23-11 Dodgers have the big leagues' best record, but Texas Rangers are the best team. Sunday night, Orel Hershiser said it wasn't even close, with Texas having the major leagues' best team, right now.

7) Pretty good Sunday for Joey Votto, who hit three homers, last of which was a walk-off grandslam in the Reds' 9-6 win over Washington. He is first player ever with three HRs in a game, with last one a walk-off grand slam.

6) Reds' win put the surprising Braves into first place in the NL East.

5) By the way, that game started 3:36 late because of rain; what did the Reds' TV station show during the delay? Womens' skeet shooting!!!!

4) Miami Marlins are 18-16, 8-6 at home; five of their eight home wins are walk-off wins. They need to bat Stanton cleanup.

3) When in Las Vegas, Joe's New York Pizza on Paradise Road is as good a pizza as most anywhere I have heard. I highly recommend it.

2) Despite the NBA's insistence on marketing stars, role players are what puts teams over the top; where would the Lakers be without Steve Blake? They'd be explaining why they lost to Denver. Blake saved their butts with tremendous shooting and solid ballhandling in Game 7.

1) Curious decision by ESPN for Sunday night baseball next week; its the first weekend of interleague play, but the Sunday night game will be Cards-Dodgers, the only two teams not participating in interleague next weekend.

List of Dirty Dozen: Random thoughts as I head arrive home from Cancun.........

12) I've got the solution for the NBA on how to decrease flopping by eager defenders (you can never totally eliminate it); just call less charging fouls. Every time you call a charge, you encourage flopping, so more charges will get drawn. Stop calling so many, guys will defend instead of flop.

11) I've watched this Alonso kid play 1B for the Padres; if I was the Reds, I would've found a place for him to play, especially in that tiny ballpark of theirs. Very good hitter. I know they got Mat Latos for him, but they need to go for groundball pitchers to avoid cheap flyball home runs.

10) Sparse crowds on a Monday night in Toronto, Washington, Queens; at some point, frontrunning NYC folk might realize the Mets are a contender right now. They play good ball, and deserve better fan support. Same for the Nationals, who jumped back into first place last night.

9) Mets have now gone 8,003 games without a no-hitter; Padres have gone 6,878. Marlins have had four in 17 years.

8) Texas hasn't put a guy on the DL yet; Nationals have put 11, and backup catcher Leon might be #12 after getting hurt in a home plate collision.

7) Let the record show that Bryce Harper's first MLB homer went over the centerfield fence against Tim Stauffer. He also dropped a fly ball that cost Washington a run. Things are always interesting around him.

6) Emilio Bonifacio is 18-18 stealing bases; he's not a better hitter, but he might be a better basestealer than teammate Jose Reyes.

5) I wish all outfield fences were nine feet high; its pretty cool when an OF robs the batter of a home run. Not real big on 12-15 foot fences, they just rob the hitters of home runs.

4) Pirates are 11-1 when they score 4+ runs, 6-17 when they don't.

3) Carlos Beltran has 21 RBI in May, most in the major leagues. Guess he didn't like New York City.

2) The commercial with the "other Michael Jordan" is a classic. The looks on people's faces when they realize they're not going to meet the famous Jordan are excellent.

1) If you've never been to Cancun, I highly recommend it; its unique, in both good and bad ways, mostly good. Be prepared to have fun.........

Anyone wonder why the Wizards always lose? Who gets rid of a freakish athlete like McGee?, and Young is helping the Clippers too. Cook played 9.7 mpg for the Wizards; he is 31. Hilario is pretty good, but he is 29. Look at the way McGee runs and jumps-- he's a unique talent!!!!! Yikes.

9) Texas Rangers haven't had a player on the DL yet this season.

8) Interesting decision by the Angels, starting CJ Wilson two days in a row, after he threw 22 pitches in a rain-delayed game Friday night. Angels won the Saturday game, will be interesting to chart Wilson moving forward.

7) Last week Kyle Drabek was the only pitcher in the big leagues with a single digit uniform number. Since then, the Rockies called up Alex White, who wears number 6, so now there are two.

6) Very quietly, Carlos Zambrano has been excellent for the Marlins; in his last two starts, he's thrown 16 scoreless innings.

5) Two of the big news stories on the Las Vegas local TV last week were the graduation at UNLV, and the Runnin' Rebels signing Anthony Bennett, who one station touted as UNLV's best recruit since Larry Johnson. Wow.

4) No Stanley Cup champion has gone seven games in its first two playoff series, the way the Rangers have this spring. New York advances with a 8-6 playoff record. Washington goes home at 7-7.

3) Some influential Florida State people are pushing the school to look at a move to the Big X, which is called the Big XII but only has ten teams right now, with TCU/West Virginia joining this year, and A&M/Mizzou going. Being in the ACC does very little for the Seminoles' football program.

2) Roy Halladay has no wins in his last five starts. Very unusual.

1) Eric Karros had a great tidbit on the FOX baseball game Saturday; when Josh Hamilton had 18 total bases in his 4-HR game earlier this week, Adrian Beltre was hitting behind him in the lineup.

Shawn Green holds the big league record with 19 total bases; that night, in 2002, the batter hitting in front of Green? Adrian Beltre.

13) The Twins have a $100M payroll this season? Damn, they're awful. You don't have to be Columbo to figure out that Ron Gardenhire will get fired soon-- its a lot easier to fire the manger than the $100M roster.

11) Miami Marlins increased their payroll this year from $57M to $101M and they're finally starting to play like it, coming from behind to beat the Mets Friday and Sunday night.

10) In four games last week, Mets have outscored opponents 20-5 from the 7th inning on-- they're a mentally tough team. Just not that talented.

9) Mark McGwire is apparently a very good hitting coach; Cardinals are killing the ball, and all without Albert Pujols around to carry the squad.

8) Phillies' owners paid $30M to buy the team in 1981; they're now worth a cool $723M.

7) Carlos Gonzalez leads the major leagues, knocking in 29.9% of runners who were on base in his ABs; Josh Hamilton (27.4%) is next, with Wilson Betemit (27.1%) a surprising third. This only includes guys with 80+ ABs.

6) Bringing up the rear in that category are Nyjer Morgan (0-28), Danny Espinosa (1-63, but he homered Friday) and Marco Scutaro (1-56).

5) Speaking of which, Vernon Wells is making $24,642,857 this year, and has knocked in only four of 70 baserunners. What a debacle.

4) Who pays Yu Darvish's interpreter? Darvish or the Rangers? How much does he make? Where is he from? He's kind of an important guy, no?

3) Houston Astros have four players who earn more than $2.35M a year.

2) Since 1983, Fred Couples ('99) is the only pro golfer who parred the 17th at TPC Sawgrass by hitting his tee shot in the water, then chipping in from the drop area. Thats out of 1,412 balls in the water (before this week).

1) Bronx Bomber fans celebrated when Raul Ibanez hit a cheap homer into the first row of the right-centerfield bleachers on Friday night, but the look on the face of Felix Hernandez said, "I ain't never coming here as a free agent."

Wednesday's Top 10: Mid-week thoughts as I settle back in from Cancun....

10) There's a scapegoat in Anaheim, as Halos fired 13-year batting coach Mickey Hatcher, silently but loudly blaming him for the club's dismal start. Guess he didn't mesh well with Albert Pujols. Thats not good.

9) Phillies are a combined 4-9 in Halladay/Lee starts. Surprising.

8) Even worse, Giants are 2-6 when Tim Lincecum starts.

7) Then there is Derek Lowe, who is 6-1, 2.05 for Cleveland; he blanked the horrendous Twins Tuesday with a 127-pitch complete game, striking out no one, and getting only one miss on 48 Cleveland swings. Tribe put 29 balls in play, only got six hits, with 22 ground ball outs.

6) There is a golf course in Summerlin called Angel Park, and you can golf there at night- they've got lights. Arnold Palmer designed the course.

5) Some publicity-seeking jackass wrote an article this week saying that Tony Romo is a top 5 QB in the NFL. Let me see, that means, out of the group of QBs below, he has to be better than two of them, plus everyone else in the league:

Brady/both Mannings/Roethlisberger/Rodgers/Brees/Rivers. No way.

4) Butler and VCU are off to the Atlantic 14, replacing Temple/Charlotte. Temple will be a big loss for that league. A-14 is a weird league, far-flung and without a great TV contract. Interesting to see how Butler/VCU do in noving up in class from their previous leagues.

3) Only three weeks until the Phil Steele College Football magazine hits the newsstands. Can't wait; its the bible of college football.

2) Miami Heat is now 4-6 without Chris Bosh this season, losing 78-75 at home to Indiana, going 1-16 behind the arc. Series heads to Indiana 1-1.

1) You look at the relatively-obscure Pacer roster and realize that other than Leandro Barbosa, most of the Pacers played a lot of college ball. Not sure if it makes them more mature, more fundamentally sound or both.

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